Johnny Brown, Dave German, and Michael Gordon had the ambitious plan of
climbing both the left and right couloirs on North Peak - one on Saturday 9
Oct., and the other on Sunday 10 Oct.

Johnny and I slept fitfully (and cold: high 20's) at the Saddlebag Lake
trailhead on Friday night after the long drive from the LA area. Sometime
after 3am the intrepid, but insane Dave German would arrive (from San
Diego!) at Judy Rittenhouse's in Bishop, only to stop for a brief moment and
then continue on with Judy to the Saddlebag Lake TH to meet us at 8am.

We geared up and walked in to Cascade Lake in about 1.5 hours where we
camped Saturday night. In the truest example of fortitude and
indefatigability, Judy would walk setting her own pace......on crutches!!.
Judy's ankle is still recovering from an incident on the Palisade Glacier a
few weeks previous, and though her ambitions were set high to climb North
Peak with us, her ankle told her otherwise. She would enjoy the High Sierra
splendor from camp without the ankle taxation of the climb.

Johnny, Dave, and I dropped packs, pumped a little water, geared up, and
began the ramp approach to the glacier. Traveling unroped, we reached the
bergschrund where we would set an anchor. We roped up, and I took the first
pitch over the extremely tame bergschrund. Johnny took the second pitch,
with Dave taking the third. Since we were on double ropes, Johnny and I
simul-lead the fourth and last pitch, bringing Dave up on belay.

The snow/neve is not very icy (but the axe sticks were good) and is pretty
oxygenated and granular at depth. 22cm screws are highly recommended, and we
were able to pound in a couple of bomber pickets where screws were
worthless.

Saturday night was long, as we were all tired (especially Dave, operating on
two hours of sleep or so from Friday night) and retired early to our bags.
Sunday we awoke, Dave opting to walk out casually with Judy and not climb,
and Johnny and I determining we didn't want to return home extremely late
and real tired.

We declined on the left couloir, and instead went for the closer and shorter
north-facing broad couloir located centrally at the head of the "Cascade
Lake Cirque". It is only about 400 feet in height, but since it receives
daytime sun (unlike the North Peak couloirs), the numerous freeze and thaw
cycles have created far better and icier conditions than the Couloirs
themselves. Johnny and I soloed up this 35-40 degree couloir in about 30
minutes from camp to where it hits the east ridge of North Peak, then
downclimbed to return to camp. As it was steepest at the top and liberally
coated in blue ice, we descended swinging tools and facing into the slope
until the ice and angle eased up some. We were back in camp only an hour
after we left. This is a great practice couloir because it's short and close
to Cascade Lake, and if one is camped at Cascade Lake, it makes a faster,
albeit steeper (and possibly icier) descent back to the lake from the
summit.

The weather was fantastic this weekend, with the nighttime temperature at
Cascade Lake surprisingly warm. Winds were virtually nil, with subtle
breezes now and again.